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Streets named after birds in Britain on rise as species’ populations plummet

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Friday, December 5, 2025

Britain’s street names are being inspired by skylarks, lapwings and starlings, even as bird populations decline.According to a report by the RSPB, names such as Skylark Lane and Swift Avenue are increasingly common. Using OS Open Names data from 2004 to 2024, the conservation charity found that road names featuring bird species had risen by 350% for skylarks, 156% for starlings and 104% for lapwings, despite populations of these having fallen in the wild.Between 1970 and 2022 the UK lost 53% of its breeding skylarks, 62% of lapwings and 89% of nightingales. The RSPB’s chief executive, Beccy Speight, said the analysis “shows councils and developers are happy to name streets after the nature we love while efforts to prevent these birds disappearing from our skies remain woefully inadequate”.The 2023 State of Nature report called the UK “one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth”, and wild bird numbers have plummeted since the 1970s.The RSPB study also found that “meadow” in street names had risen by 34%, though wildflower meadows are down 97% since the 1930s.The RSPB called for the government to do more to support nature, with the planning and infrastructure bill for England entering its final stages. In October it reneged on backing an amendment to the bill calling for swift bricks to be installed in every new home. Swift road names have grown by 58%.The RSPB argued it was “possible and essential” to have a planning system that restores nature, and cited recent research by More in Common that found only 20% of Britons think environmental standards should be weakened to build more houses.Michael Warren, the author of The Cuckoo’s Lea, about the history of birds in British placenames, said: “We love a nature name and developers know it. But the trend for birds in new-build placenames masks the severe detachment many of us suffer from nature, while making it seem like everything is OK.”Warren said placenames once reflected ecological reality, but while “at best” pretty, the modern equivalent was a “deceiving, cheap and easy way to give the impression of addressing nature deprivation without actually doing that”.Speight said: “We deserve to enjoy the sounds of a nightingale in full song or swifts screaming overhead, rather than living in silent streets with ironic names.”skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionDeborah Meaden, an RSPB ambassador, said: “In principle it’s fantastic to see local authorities and business recognising people’s love of nature on new developments, but we need to see tangible action to halt and reverse nature loss.”A spokesperson for the British Trust for Ornithology said its monitoring continued to find worrying declines in bird species. “Once familiar skylarks, nightingales and swifts are becoming less so, in all but name,” they said.

RSPB says growing trend for honouring species that are in decline is not matched by action on conservationBritain’s street names are being inspired by skylarks, lapwings and starlings, even as bird populations decline.According to a report by the RSPB, names such as Skylark Lane and Swift Avenue are increasingly common. Using OS Open Names data from 2004 to 2024, the conservation charity found that road names featuring bird species had risen by 350% for skylarks, 156% for starlings and 104% for lapwings, despite populations of these having fallen in the wild. Continue reading...

Britain’s street names are being inspired by skylarks, lapwings and starlings, even as bird populations decline.

According to a report by the RSPB, names such as Skylark Lane and Swift Avenue are increasingly common. Using OS Open Names data from 2004 to 2024, the conservation charity found that road names featuring bird species had risen by 350% for skylarks, 156% for starlings and 104% for lapwings, despite populations of these having fallen in the wild.

Between 1970 and 2022 the UK lost 53% of its breeding skylarks, 62% of lapwings and 89% of nightingales. The RSPB’s chief executive, Beccy Speight, said the analysis “shows councils and developers are happy to name streets after the nature we love while efforts to prevent these birds disappearing from our skies remain woefully inadequate”.

The 2023 State of Nature report called the UK “one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth”, and wild bird numbers have plummeted since the 1970s.

The RSPB study also found that “meadow” in street names had risen by 34%, though wildflower meadows are down 97% since the 1930s.

The RSPB called for the government to do more to support nature, with the planning and infrastructure bill for England entering its final stages. In October it reneged on backing an amendment to the bill calling for swift bricks to be installed in every new home. Swift road names have grown by 58%.

The RSPB argued it was “possible and essential” to have a planning system that restores nature, and cited recent research by More in Common that found only 20% of Britons think environmental standards should be weakened to build more houses.

Michael Warren, the author of The Cuckoo’s Lea, about the history of birds in British placenames, said: “We love a nature name and developers know it. But the trend for birds in new-build placenames masks the severe detachment many of us suffer from nature, while making it seem like everything is OK.”

Warren said placenames once reflected ecological reality, but while “at best” pretty, the modern equivalent was a “deceiving, cheap and easy way to give the impression of addressing nature deprivation without actually doing that”.

Speight said: “We deserve to enjoy the sounds of a nightingale in full song or swifts screaming overhead, rather than living in silent streets with ironic names.”

skip past newsletter promotion

after newsletter promotion

Deborah Meaden, an RSPB ambassador, said: “In principle it’s fantastic to see local authorities and business recognising people’s love of nature on new developments, but we need to see tangible action to halt and reverse nature loss.”

A spokesperson for the British Trust for Ornithology said its monitoring continued to find worrying declines in bird species. “Once familiar skylarks, nightingales and swifts are becoming less so, in all but name,” they said.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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Oregon’s Wild Arts Festival gathers artists, authors and nature lovers for a weekend celebration

Festival goers can meet artists and attend author talks, and everyone can bid online for auction items, with all proceeds supporting wildlife conservation efforts.

People will be able to flit about and chirp with artists and authors at the 45th Wild Arts Festival, a popular Bird Alliance of Oregon fundraiser happening Dec. 6-7 in Hillsboro.The weekend festival, the Pacific Northwest’s premier show and sale of nature-related art and books, will be at the Wingspan Event Center, 801 N.E. 34th Ave. Adults ($13 admission) and kids, who attend for free, can see paintings, prints, sculptures, ceramics, fiber art and jewelry as well as glass and wood pieces by 65 artists. (Scroll through the gallery above to view some of the artists’ work.)Each piece for sale has nature or wildlife as a subject or the artist employs natural materials as a medium or the art promotes environmental sustainability, say organizers.Festival goers can meet 25 Northwest writers who specialize in nature, hiking or history, and hear short talks about their books presented between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. both days.Oregon State University anthropology professor David G. Lewis, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, will talk Saturday about his book, “Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley.”Robert Michael Pyle, a lepidopterist and founder of the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, will read Sunday from his 13th book, “Swimming With Snakes: Poetry and Prose.”LeeAnn Kriegh will sign copies of her 2025 field guides “The Nature of Portland” and “The Nature of Bend,” which identify more than 350 birds, wildflowers, trees and animals.People who cannot attend the fundraiser can bid on silent auction items at wildartsfestival.org/silent-auction. Celebrated floral artist Françoise Weeks is offering a three-hour lesson on designing a woodland landscape centerpiece or wreath in her Portland studio. Portland Audubon staff member and author Sarah Swanson is donating a half-day guided bird hike. Other experiences range from glamping at the Grand Canyon Sky Dome to wine tasting alongside Oregon vineyards. Binoculars and other outdoor gear were donated to the auction to support the nonprofit Bird Alliance of Oregon’s conservation work and family-friendly educational programs. If you go: The 45th Wild Arts Festival is 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 6, and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Wingspan Event & Conference Center, 801 N.E. 34th Ave., Hillsboro. The expo center is on the TriMet MAX Blue and Red Lines’ Hillsboro Airport/Fairgrounds stop and is served by bus lines 46 and 48. Admission, which includes parking, is $13 for adults (free for those under 18) and can be purchased at the door or in advance at wildartsfestival.org.If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Conservation
Nature
Education

Bears in the Backyard, Wolves at the Door: Greek Villages Have a Growing Predator Problem

Populations of brown bears and wolves are burgeoning in Greece, thanks to conservation efforts

LEVEA, Greece (AP) — It was a shocking sight for the farmer — three of his sheep lying dead on the ground, signs of their mauling unmistakable. The large paw prints in the earth left no doubt they had been killed by a bear, a once rare but now increasingly frequent visitor in this part of northwestern Greece. “It was a bear, a very big one, and they come often now. I wasn’t the only one, it struck elsewhere too,” said Anastasios Kasparidis, adding that another farmer had lost some chickens and pigs. He decided to move the rest of his small flock into a sheep pen near his house for protection. “Because in the end I wouldn’t have any sheep," Kasparidis said. "The bears would eat them all.”Environmentalists have welcomed the rebound of bear and wolf populations in Greece thanks to the protected species designation that banned them being hunted. But some farmers and residents of rural areas say they now fear for their livelihoods and, in some cases, their safety. They are calling for greater protection in a phenomenon playing out elsewhere in Europe, with some arguing conservation has gone too far and pushing to roll back restrictions.Brown bears, Greece’s largest predator, have made a remarkable comeback. Their numbers have increased roughly fourfold since the 1990s, said Dimitris Bakaloudis, a professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki who specializes in wildlife management and conservation.Up to an estimated 870 brown bears roam the forests of northern Greece, according to the most recent survey by Arcturos, an environmental organization set up in 1992 that provides a sanctuary for rescued bears and wolves.And it's not just bears. Wolves also have seen their numbers rise. While wolves could only be found as far south as central Greece in 2010, they have now spread to the outskirts of Athens and into the Peloponnese in southern Greece, Bakaloudis said.Their recovery has been sustained in part by the also increasing population of wild boars, which is unrelated to conservation efforts. Rather, a combination of a number of factors, including a reduction of hunting, milder winters and cross-breeding with domestic pigs have led them to reproduce at a faster rate, Bakaloudis explained. Viewed by many as pests that destroy crops, the sight of a dozen or more boars trotting along sidewalks or snuffling through backyards are no longer uncommon in many parts of Greece. Increasing human encounters The larger number of wild animals has also resulted in more contact with humans — the vast majority of whom are unfamiliar with how to behave during an encounter. Lack of familiarity has led to fear in some communities, particularly following a small number of serious incidents this year: a child bitten by a wolf, an elderly man injured by a bear in his yard, a hiker bitten by a bear and another hiker who died after falling into a ravine during a bear encounter.In Levea, a village of about 660 people surrounded by fields in northwestern Greece, several bear encounters were reported in October, while boars frequently roam through the village, said community president Tzefi Papadopoulou. The bears especially had frightened residents.“As soon as they heard a dog bark, they were ready to go out with the gun,” she said.It's similar in the nearby village of Valtonera, 170 kilometers west of Greece’s second largest city, Thessaloniki. “The village used to be without wild animals. In the past, a wolf would appear once in a while,” said Konstantinos Nikolaidis, community president. Now, wild boars, foxes, bears or wolves roam around or even inside the village, he noted.“This has caused concern among all residents. It’s now difficult for a person to walk around outside at night,” he said.The burgeoning wild boar population, meanwhile, has led to calls for the hunting season to be extended.Giorgos Panagiotidis, deputy mayor of the nearby small town of Amyntaio, said boars had been increasingly encroaching on houses. In May, he asked authorities for hunters to be allowed to shoot boars out of season to tackle the problem.It’s an issue that isn’t unique to Greece. In a victory of farmers over environmentalists, European Union lawmakers voted in May to reduce protections for wolves across the EU’s 27 member states. The movement even gained support from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose pony Dolly was killed by a wolf three years ago.Experts note it isn't just the larger number of wild animals that has led to encroachment on urban areas. Many factors are at play, they say, from loss of habitat due to wildfires, to noise disturbances from wind turbines and recreational vehicles, and animals emboldened by dwindling human populations in villages. “There is of course fragmentation of the bears’ habitat, frequently there is drought, there’s a lack of food in the natural environment, there’s a desertification of villages which makes inhabited areas more attractive to bears, so they approach and find food,” said Panos Stefanou, communications officer at Arcturos.Measures to keep wolves and bears at bay have been developed and approved by scientists, said Bakaloudis, the Thessaloniki university professor, including using lights around property, proper disposal of trash and dead livestock and avoiding feeding strays. In exceptional circumstances more invasive methods are used, he said, such as in the case of the wolf attack on the child in northern Greece, where authorities decided to capture and remove the animal.With so many factors contributing to increasing encounters between wild animals and humans, Stefanou cautioned against overly simplistic solutions.“Killing the animals is not what will solve the problem,” he said. Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Nov. 2025

Conservation
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Congress Axes Biden-Era Protections That Shielded Alaskan Wetlands From Drilling

The U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to strike down protections against oil drilling in some of the most diverse ecosystems and wildest lands left in North America. The resolution passed relatively quietly, but the bill will have an enormous impact on millions of acres in northern Alaska, the subject of a decades-long fight over […]

By wiping out the environmental guardrails, Congress reopened one of the planet’s last great wilderness regions to oil and gas development, a move that could destabilize one its largest carbon stores.By Carl David Goette-LuciakThe U.S. House of Representatives voted Tuesday to strike down protections against oil drilling in some of the most diverse ecosystems and wildest lands left in North America. The resolution passed relatively quietly, but the bill will have an enormous impact on millions of acres in northern Alaska, the subject of a decades-long fight over conservation and drilling in the Arctic.

Conservation

Doug Peacock, the real ‘George Hayduke,’ Looks Back on 50 Years of The Monkey Wrench Gang

Now a famed grizzly conservationist, Peacock served as Edward Abbey’s inspiration for the novel’s most pivotal, piercing character. The post Doug Peacock, the real ‘George Hayduke,’ Looks Back on 50 Years of The Monkey Wrench Gang appeared first on The Revelator.

Half a century ago, a lyrical and passionate philosopher named Edward Abbey published a novel that would help define a generation. The Monkey Wrench Gang supercharged a secretive movement to preserve the remaining American wilderness from devastating overdevelopment and corporate exploitation through targeted acts of violence against machines. The book, which remains painfully relevant to the ongoing environmental crises facing the planet, has recently been re-released in a commemorative anniversary edition. “A 50th anniversary of The Monkey Wrench Gang couldn’t be timelier,” says Abbey’s friend and colleague Doug Peacock, who inspired the character of George Washington Hayduke in the novel. “Our American wilderness, Ed’s and my favorite shared value, has never been in greater peril, and so the book’s theme of challenging authority at every turn really hits the bullseye. We live in a scorching era of biological extinctions. Climate change by itself could take everything out.” Now 83 years old, Peacock wrote the introduction to the new edition of the novel. A distinguished author, filmmaker, and conservationist, he has dedicated his life to the preservation of grizzly bears and the “trophic cascade” of spiraling ecological benefits the bears provide throughout their constricted range. (Disclosure: Funk worked as communications director for Peacock’s former startup, Save the Yellowstone Grizzly.) A Fictional Character Birthed in Genuine Trauma Peacock met Abbey in 1969, shortly after his discharge from the Green Berets during the Vietnam War. “I saw a lot of Ed Abbey in Tucson back then,” Peacock reflects. “I wasn’t a writer yet, but I was a character.” Such a character, in fact, that Peacock immediately stood out in a crowd. His anarchic instincts, incited by his combat experiences and coupled with his having partially recovered from post-traumatic stress disorder through profound encounters with grizzly bears in the wild, made him a unique persona — one that would fit perfectly into what would become The Monkey Wrench Gang. In the novel, four contrarians band together and suppress their differences for a shared and singular mission: thwarting the unchecked destruction of their beloved desert landscapes. Led by the furious and untiring Green Beret medic George Hayduke, the gang plans a sweeping campaign of industrial sabotage in desert country. Abbey’s novel is largely built around this singular character, who eagerly puts the violent wrench into the gang’s monkey business. Hayduke’s struggles with what later became known as PTSD were mirrored in Peacock. “Looking back,” Peacock reflects now, “Abbey probably did me a favor in creating a caricature of myself whose dim psyche I could penetrate when my own seemed off-limits. Ed painted the ex-Green Beret Hayduke with precise brushstrokes as caught in an emotional backwater, an eddy out of whose currents I wanted to swim. The only thing worse than reading your own press was becoming someone else’s fiction.” The other three members of the gang, says Peacock, were also based on friends of his in the Southwest: Seldom Seen Smith was built around the late activist and river runner Ken Sleight. Doc Sarvis “is mostly as far as I’m concerned Ed Abbey, especially when he spouts out his philosophy and little nuggets of wisdom — that’s really Ed.” Bonnie Abbzug was modeled after Ingrid Eisenstadter, a recent contributor to The Revelator, whom Peacock notes “was a handful, not just in fiction. That was really her.” Peacock later recounted his own story in the harrowing 1990 book Grizzly Years: In Search of the American Wilderness. In 2009 The Atlantic released a short documentary about him under the same title: ‘Wilderness Is the Glue’ After returning from Vietnam, Peacock says, he went straight into the wilderness. “I didn’t want to work for anyone or have troubles with the authorities, so I lived in the woods,” Peacock recalls. “I like autonomy and I took it to the extreme when I got back from Vietnam.” He spent most of his time in Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, “and you absolutely could not find me. I lived the life of an outlaw, far from any authority, and took anarchy to the extreme, hidden in the wilderness. I love freedom, and my feelings fit right into Abbey’s rather formal libertarian philosophy that permeates The Monkey Wrench Gang.” They found particular common ground on environmental issues. “Defending the wilderness is really the glue that cemented me with Ed.” Peacock’s insular need for a kind of absolute personal liberty, begun as an aching promise to himself while serving overseas, happened to fit neatly with Abbey’s own philosophical beliefs. Abbey wrote his master’s thesis at the University of New Mexico on anarchy, that ultimate expression of chaotic self-governance, and dedicated The Monkey Wrench Gang to the late 18th-century English reactionary and later Romantic icon Ned Ludd, who launched a populist sabotage campaign against the encroaching Industrial Revolution. In his novel Abbey makes the reader confront and question assumptions about the kinds of people behind the current economy’s ultimate, inevitable toll on our communal natural landscapes. And to bring the fight to them. Radical Rebirth The Monkey Wrench Gang was published in a time of social unrest and political turmoil that somehow seems minor compared to today’s unceasing partisan mayhem. But it struck a chord at the time, and many young people took this novel’s message to heart. Readers have credited the book with sparking the creation of Earth First! and other “radical environmentalist” groups who deflated industrial truck tires to stymy commerce, burned billboards to restore the natural view, spiked trees to prevent logging, and otherwise did what little is possible to take some kind of stand against blind, rampaging overdevelopment. “It was the beginning of radical environmentalism,” Peacock tells me. A Message That Still Resonates Peacock, who has spent a lifetime writing books and making documentaries about his dedication to preserving grizzly bears, sees our present political moment of absolute and almost fanatical obedience to the wishes of ultrarich oil, gas, coal, and timber industries as the tragically perfect time for this reintroduction to an unlikely cabal that refused to let the world die around them. Indeed, the sycophantic corporate atmosphere we’re living in today is different from any other in modern U.S. history. From handing over public lands to private extractive interests to ignoring scientific realities on climate and aggressively seeking to remove vital protections for endangered species, the Trump administration proudly proclaims its unprecedented contempt for what allows the United States to be what it was founded to be — wild and free. The categorically contrasting but equally devoted characters of The Monkey Wrench Gang embody the American belief in pushing past seemingly impenetrable boundaries by working together, by risking it all for common ideals, and by regularly squabbling and then reconciling. Out of a shared sense of duty. This book reminds us today that when all else fails, there’s always the option of rebellious attempts at sabotage to cut through the agitprop and draw attention to an enduring and genuinely apolitical value: preserving what remains of our wilderness. Together. After all, as Peacock says, “The principles and anger behind The Monkey Wrench Gang are still with us, and still with me.” Previously in The Revelator: In Understory, An Ecologist Reflects on the Grief of Losing Nature The post Doug Peacock, the real ‘George Hayduke,’ Looks Back on 50 Years of The Monkey Wrench Gang appeared first on The Revelator.

Conservation
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Graeme Samuel calls for Labor to ditch ‘national interest’ workaround for environment laws

Former ACCC chair condemns proposed exemption allowing minister to approve projects that don’t comply with lawGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe former competition watchdog chief Graeme Samuel says the government should axe its proposal to allow the environment minister to make decisions in breach of national laws if it is deemed in the “national interest”.Samuel, who led a 2020 review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, also argued a loophole that effectively exempts native forest logging from the laws “shouldn’t be there”. Continue reading...

The former competition watchdog chief Graeme Samuel says the government should axe its proposal to allow the environment minister to make decisions in breach of national laws if it is deemed in the “national interest”.Samuel, who led a 2020 review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act, also argued a loophole that effectively exempts native forest logging from the laws “shouldn’t be there”.In his written submission to the inquiry, Samuel said “national interest” should instead be incorporated as a consideration in new national environmental standards.He made the comments to a Senate committee examining the Albanese government’s bills to reform national nature laws, which Labor hopes to pass before parliament rises for Christmas.Samuel was also concerned the legislation retained a loophole that effectively exempts native forest logging covered by a regional forest agreement (RFA) from national environmental laws.“I hate the RFA exemption. It shouldn’t be there,” Samuel told the committee.He said if the government did retain it, the agreements “should be governed by a very tough national environmental standard”.Sign up: AU Breaking News emailThe former Howard government environment minister Robert Hill – who introduced the original act – said tighter regulation of land-clearing should be the “highest priority” of the reforms.In his submission to the inquiry, Hill also said that there was “no credible argument” for retaining the logging exemption.What does net zero emissions actually mean? And is it different to the Paris agreement? – videoWhile welcoming the bills as achieving “80% of the aspirations” of a consultative group formed during the review process, Samuel said the government’s proposed national interest exemption could lead to the abuse of the power vested in the minister.Adopting similar language to the former treasury secretary Ken Henry, Samuel warned the exemption could lead to lobbyists seeking favourable decisions.The proposed exemption would allow the minister to approve projects that do not comply with environmental laws if the approval was considered in the national interest.“There’ll be a conga line of lobbyists that will be outside their door saying, ‘Well, look, you just use the national interest exemption’,” he said.“So I would take it out of the legislation and simply say it is now a balancing matter that ought to be taken into account in determining approvals and assessments.”Hill, in a submission co-written with Atticus Fleming, a former deputy secretary of the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service, wrote that the “primary shortcoming” of the existing laws had been their failure to address the impact of land-clearing on Australia’s biodiversity.“Given the impact on biodiversity, and the failure of state governments, the effective regulation of land clearing must be the highest priority for the EPBC Act,” the submission states.Hill and Fleming suggested changes including provisions that would require land-clearing above certain thresholds to be assessed for impacts on threatened species and ecosystems.They also said “there is no credible argument for maintaining a blanket exemption for the logging of native forests” and the bills should be amended to remove it.“Logging operations should be subject to the same rules as mining, agriculture, urban development and so on,” they wrote.

Conservation
Forests
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